Setup a backup system

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MarkWebb


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I want to move all of my files to an external drive to improve the performance of my iMac, and I am considering using the Western Digital Cloud.

I want to continue to backup my OS and files.

What is the best way to set this up? Should I backup my OS and keep files on a WD Cloud device then backup files to a second external drive, or should I backup OS to an external drive, store my files to a second external device (WD Cloud) and backup files to a third external drive?
 
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How full is the hard drive in your iMac? Moving all your files is a drastic way to improve performance. If your hard drive is around 80% full then you can consider moving files such as music, videos, and photos to an external hard drive. There may be other factors that are slowing down the performance of your iMac. You should continue to backup everything whether it's on the iMac or an external hard drive. How you do that is up to you.
 
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Hard drive is at 64%.
Mostly takes several minutes to come out of sleep and other times its almost immediate.
I mostly have photos taking up the space.
 
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@MarkWeb

The first thing to stress is that irrespective of the size of your HD or how much space is left, you really need to have a backup (BU) strategy. It's a fundamental principle of computing.

There are several BU strategies:

1. Use Time Machine. Not bootable, but great for recovering an inadvertently deleted file and is a reliable means of restoring your OS, settings, files, folders, everything to a new Mac.

2. A cloning software option such as Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper! It is bootable which means you can get your Mac booted up in an emergency situation. You can also copy back your clone from the EHD to a new Mac or new HD.

3. An online BU service such as CrashPlan. Takes a while to upload (sometimes days or weeks) and can be a little slow to restore to a new HD or Mac, but is at least in the cloud and not in your home.

4. You can move your iPhoto, Photos, Aperture, iTunes Libraries to one or more EHDs and run them from there (creates space on your HD); or simply use them as another form of BU - although you will have to keep them up to date manually.

These are just a few ideas. Come back to us if you need advice on setting them up. Apart from online BU, all require you have, or purchase, EHDs. But these are incredibly cheap nowadays especially compared with the cost of your Mac and the personal loss of precious data.

Hope this helps.

Ian
 
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Rod

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At 64% full your erratic wake from sleep times are probably attributable to something else entirely.


Sent from my iPhone using Mac Forums.
 
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IWT said:
@MarkWeb

The first thing to stress is that irrespective of the size of your HD or how much space is left, you really need to have a backup (BU) strategy. It's a fundamental principle of computing.

There are several BU strategies:

1. Use Time Machine. Not bootable, but great for recovering an inadvertently deleted file and is a reliable means of restoring your OS, settings, files, folders, everything to a new Mac.

2. A cloning software option such as Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper! It is bootable which means you can get your Mac booted up in an emergency situation. You can also copy back your clone from the EHD to a new Mac or new HD.

3. An online BU service such as CrashPlan. Takes a while to upload (sometimes days or weeks) and can be a little slow to restore to a new HD or Mac, but is at least in the cloud and not in your home.

4. You can move your iPhoto, Photos, Aperture, iTunes Libraries to one or more EHDs and run them from there (creates space on your HD); or simply use them as another form of BU - although you will have to keep them up to date manually.

These are just a few ideas. Come back to us if you need advice on setting them up. Apart from online BU, all require you have, or purchase, EHDs. But these are incredibly cheap nowadays especially compared with the cost of your Mac and the personal loss of precious data.

Hope this helps.

Ian
Click to expand...

Many thanks for that. Yes I do have a Seagate EHD setup with Time Machine, but I came across the Western Digital Cloud which interested me but I am not sure about the best way to set it up if I go for it.

What appeals is that there are no ongoing charges and the photos can be accessed from anywhere via a smartphone, iPad etc.
 
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Rod Sprague said:
At 64% full your erratic wake from sleep times are probably attributable to something else entirely.


Sent from my iPhone using Mac Forums.
Click to expand...

Thank you. Can you suggest where to start looking for problems which may cause this?
 
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